Isabella “Bella” Ryan of Wilmington, Delaware passed away on April 2, 2025. She was 18 years old.
Bella was a first-year at Oberlin College and a member and resident of the Harkness House cooperative. She was an outspoken advocate for environmental justice, completing her Winter Term project with the Office of Environmental Sustainability to help organize this year’s Ecolympics. Bella was also a passionate musician who played the flute, and was a proud graduate of the Cab Calloway School of the Arts.
Oberlin held a memorial service for Bella on April 10. Among those who spoke were Bella’s childhood best friend, who is a first-year Conservatory student; Heather Adelman, director of OES and Bella’s Ecolympics supervisor; two of Bella’s Ecolympics colleagues and friends; Assistant Professor of Comparative American Studies Aanchal Saraf, who taught Bella’s first-year seminar; President Carmen Twillie Ambar; and Multifaith Chaplain David Dorsey.
Her obituary reads: “Bella moved through the world with gentleness and curiosity, seeing beauty where others might not look, and offering warmth where others might hold back. Her laughter, her empathy, and her desire for a better world will live on in the countless lives she touched. … Though her time with us was heartbreakingly brief, Bella’s light was unmistakable. She leaves behind not just memories, but inspiration — a reminder to live with empathy, to speak up for what matters, and to love this world, and each other, as fiercely as she did.”
The Oberlin Review offers its deepest condolences to Bella’s family, friends, Hark, and the greater Oberlin community, which has been sincerely and irrevocably changed by Bella’s grace and legacy.
